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The ballad is an adaptation of a sea song called "The Sailor's Grave" or "The Ocean Burial", which began "O bury me not in the deep, deep sea."[4][5][6] The Ocean Burial was written by Edwin Hubbell Chapin, published in 1839, and put to music by George N. Allen.[7][8]

A version of the song was published in John Lomax's "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads" in 1910.
The melody and lyrics were collected and published in Carl Sandburg's 1927 American Songbag.[9]

An article published in the Uvalde, TX Uvalde News-Leader in 1928 suggests that the origin of the song was the small town of Lohn, TX. The article states that the song was originally about the Lohn Prairie, and was later changed to "Lone Prairie." [10]

Originally collected with different music than that widely known today, Bury Me Not On the Lone Prairie first appeared in print with the present melody in 1932, with a likely origin of North Carolina, though the speaker at that time requested—contrary to other renditions—to "bury me out on the lone prairie."[11]

The Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie music was adapted for the soundtrack to John Ford's 1939 western film classic Stagecoach - its haunting theme is repeatedly heard throughout the movie.

The song records the plaintive request of a dying man not to be buried on the prairie, away from civilization. In spite of his request, he is buried on the prairie. As with many folk songs, there are a number of variations of that basic theme.

^Hall, Sharlot M. (March 1908). "Songs of the old cattle trails". In Lummis, Charles Fletcher; Moody, Charles Amadon. Out West: A Magazine of the Old Pacific and the New. 28. Land of Sunshine Pub. Co. p. 219.